One

"1-2-3-4"

"There's only ONE way "TWO" say those THREE words, that's what I'll do...
There's only ONE thing "TWO" say THREE words "FOUR" you...
I love, I love you... I love... I love you."

Of the two of them, she was the first to say 'I love you'. Red had to admit to being somewhat surprised.

Not surprised that she felt that way about him. He'd known for quite some time that she loved him. Mostly because every so often, and with increasing frequency, Liz would get this look. This twinkling-eyed, close-lipped smiling, deeply secretive kind of a look. It would always let him know whenever she was finding him utterly adorable. She still gets that look. Red loves that look. He can't get enough of that look. Whenever he sees it, it never fails to remind him how immensely he adores her back.

What surprises him though is not that Liz loves him or Liz saying she loves him, but the moments that Liz verbalises that feeling. Like when they are about to engage in an impromptu quickie in the post office bathroom after she has been involved in a one-way food fight. For instance. Or when he brings her lunch at her desk on an especially hectic day when everyone right down to the janitor has been giving her grief. Or when he takes her to see a Three Stooges film on a rainy Sunday afternoon, wraps her up in his scarf and lets her eat the last of his Goobers. It's in these small, outwardly insignificant, often food-related moments that the words seem to just fly out of her mouth. It always occurs at the most random, unpredictable times - as though not even she can help but allow them to escape. That's what he loves about it. The spontaneity. The urgency. The honesty. It's so very Liz Keen. And he loves Liz Keen. Even if he finds it slightly difficult in such moments to respond in a way that shows her how much.

It's not that Red is unused to or uneasy with such weighty words. Truth be told, over the years, he's been in some relationships in which such emphatic exchanges were made. Also, he's been in some where they never were. His ex-wife was never big on such admissions. But in his other experiences with various women, he's found that those three little words could often be used as a tool, frequently meant to seduce or bargain or excuse or enthral or even, wound. Rarely were they freely given. And if they were, they were not truly meant. He himself has been guilty of more than one untruthful I love you. Even if he was only aware of it after the fact.

It's not that the words come more easily to Liz than they might to other people, to other women. It's more that she possesses so little filter between what goes on in her brain and what comes out of her mouth. Neither is it that they come less easily to Red than in the past. It's just that they mean more now. Infinitely more. In fact, being with Liz, loving Liz as fundamentally as he does, has made him realize just how untruthful all those former I love yous really were. Which is why he stops - can never help himself - whenever those words blurt from her mouth. Because Red never wants to give her an answer that seems in any way perfunctory or disingenuous or contrived. Sometimes - just to make sure she truly understands what she means to him - he'll reply with I adore you. Rather than the blander alternatives of I love you too or Me too. Once he even came out with another phrase many men generally avoid. Liz laughed out loud at his Will you marry me? Then, after she finished laughing, she mused: "Yeah, probably. One day."

More than once when she told him she loved him, Red responded by telling her he wanted to make love to her. Then proceeded to do so. Enthusiastically and at length. That's generally the way it goes. This time, however, they have just finished making love. They have just completed a very satisfying round of early morning weekend sex - his favourite sort, incidentally. They are in the kitchen, Liz sitting at the counter in his striped pyjama top when he brings her her first coffee of the day, just the way she likes it. Liz gives him her twinkly-eyed look and tells him she loves him.

Red's response this time, is: "You look pretty."

Liz snorts. She shakes her head at her coffee cup before peering at him over the rim. "You've run out of ways to say I love you back. Haven't you?"

"I'll never run out of ways," he says with a confident tilt of the head.

"You have," she insists laughingly.

Red plants his hands on the counter top, leans in close. "You're glowing-"

She picks up a banana from his fruit bowl and tears into it. "That's from having sex," she points out.

His eyes run over her. "Your hair is a mess-"

She nods. "From sex."

"Even with your mouth full-"

"Hungry-" she mutters, banana rolling round in her mouth: "From all the sex."

"You've never looked prettier," he tells her, certain he's giving her a twinkly-eyed look of his own.

Liz swallows her mouthful, eyes him for a moment in silence. "You know...you can just say I love you too, Lizzie. There's nothing wrong with that."

Red smiles. Eventually, he murmurs: "I love you too, Lizzie."

Liz smiles back. Kisses him. "I know."

END.